Page 31 of Riv's Sanctuary

Shit.

"Hey, that was my stomach growling. I wasn’t like, challenging you or anything." For fuck’s sake, she needed a plan.

As her stomach growled again, she tried to tense her stomach muscles, as if that would stop the sound.

Not now.

Not the right time at all.

Stop challenging the man, you idiot organ!

Riv snarled again.

Damnit.

This wasn’t getting her anywhere.

The blaster was also weighing her down and she contemplated resting it on the table.

Thinking about it, he didn't seem too bothered by the fact she was holding a weapon against him. He'd walked right by her to pick up the pom-pom on legs.

That made up her mind.

Moving forward with cautious steps, wary eyes cast his way, she rested the blaster on the table.

Riv moved forward, his arms falling to his sides, and for a moment, she considered grabbing the blaster again.

But he didn't move her way. Instead, he walked past her into another room without so much as a backward glance at her, and Lauren was left to stare at the space he was standing in.

Well, at least, he hadn't tried to snatch the blaster away and he hadn't attacked her either.

One point for Lauren on the survival meter.

Maybe if she got enough points she’d win this game.

* * *

Riv moved around in his room, muttered curses slipping from his lips as he searched for the backup sat phone.

The female had been yammering away something he couldn’t understand but at least she’d put down the blaster after she’d challenged him and backed down.

This is why he didn't like visitors.

He’d stepped outside to return the baby umu to its enclosure and when he’d returned he could already smell her presence in his space.

That and her incessant yammering were going to do his head in.

He hadn’t heard so many words said in a short space of time for many months.

He hadn’t been around anyone but his brother, Sohut, to hear conversation.

There was a reason he lived in the middle of nowhere. A reason he had only animals as company.

Animals didn't yap away and they tended to keep to themselves once they were fed and happy.

Well, every animal except the little umu that refused to stay in its enclosure. That umu was almost as annoying as the presence of the female in his main room.

Maybe if he fed her she would do like the animals—keep quiet and to herself—until he figured out what to do with her.

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